The former England captain came to the County Ground at Hove this winter.

Adams will also be using Gooch regularly throughout the season and the sessions could be widened to include other Sussex players.

"I have been working hard with Graham Gooch in the winter," Adams revealed. "He came down to give me the benefit of his experience and it went really well.

"He does freelance coaching and we sought some finance to pay for it. I had four sessions with him and we are looking to do a session a month now throughout the season to retain the relationship.

"Hopefully in the future the facility will be open to several more of the players.

"Graham has a lot of knowledge on how to approach the game and how to manage yourself prior to going in and at the crease.

"We want to improve and you need to look at specialist coaching for that. To be the best you have got to get the best."

Gooch managed England's Ashes tour to Australia. He was a prolific runmaker for his country and Adams, overlooked for the forthcoming World Cup, regards him as a role model for his own international ambitions.

"Graham made definite changes during his career," Adams said. "He wasn't a fantastic player at 21 who then just carried on for 20 years doing nothing different. He improved and that's what I am looking to do.

"I'm at a stage now where I would back myself to score 1,300 runs a year at an average of 40 or 45, but I want to be scoring 1,500 runs and averaging 50. That is the required level for Test match cricket.

"I think I am one of the top three batsmen in the country in one-day cricket and I'm disappointed that I have not had more than two games.

"But if I churn out the runs the selectors cannot ignore me."

Adams gets his first chance to put Gooch's methods into practise when he leads Sussex in tomorrow's day-night friendly against Kent under the new Hove floodlights (3.0).

Admission is free and the 45 overs a side match forms the centrepiece of the club's open day.

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